The third 800 MW supercritical unit at Sri Damodaram Sanjeevaiah Thermal Power Station (SDSTPS) in Andhra Pradesh goes on stream on 3 November 2022.
The project was over three years behind schedule.
In a first in the country, the supercritical plant at Krishnapatnam gets water for its cooling towers through a specially-laid open channel from the Bay of Bengal.
The Andhra Pradesh Power Development Corporation (APPDCL) is in the process of privatising the entire SDSTPS operations.
Stage-1 of SDSTPS with 2x800 MW supercritical units was inaugurated by the then Union Minister for Power Piyush Goyal on 27 February 2016, who simultaneously laid the foundation stone for the Stage-2 800 MW supercritical unit.
Stage-2 was targeted to be completed by 2019 but got delayed due to several factors, including Covid-19. The project was taken up at an estimated cost of Rs 5,600 crore has finally been completed at an expense of over Rs 8,100 crore.
Stage-2 unit of SDSTPS has been synchronised with the grid on 10 November 2022 and achieved a maximum load of 137 MW. Subsequently, partial load trial operation was completed up to 308 MW.